Documenting an Aboriginal sign language in Northern Australia Yolngu Sign Language
Project description
The project “VillageSign” was funded by the German Science Foundation and was a part of the Collaborative Research (EUROCORES) EuroBABEL „Better Analyses Based on Endangered Languages“ from 2009-2012.
My PhD project focused on the use of an Australian Aboriginal sign language as it used by Yolngu Indigenous people in the North East Arnhem Land (Northern Territory). After two exciting fieldwork trips I annotated the data of this alternate sign language and described it on various levels of grammar. Topics discussed range from properties of individual signs to structure of interrogative and negative sentences. The main interests are the manifestation of signing space - the articulatory space surrounding the signers used for grammatical purposes and the complex system of kinship signs in Yolngu Sign Language.
Further collaborations in this field with: Jennifer Green
Output
Jorgensen, Eleanor, Green, Jennifer & Anastasia Bauer. 2021. The phonology of alternate sign languages in Australia. Languages 6/2:81, https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020081
Green, Jennifer, Bauer, Anastasia, Gaby, Alice & Elizabeth Ellis. 2018. Pointing to the body: kin signs in Australian Indigenous sign languages. GESTURE 17/1 pp.1-36.
Bauer, Anastasia, Green, Jennifer, Gaby, Alice & Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis. 2016. Pointing to the body: kin signs in Australian Indigenous sign languages. TISLR 12, Melbourne, Australia
Bauer, Anastasia, Green, Jennifer, Gaby, Alice & Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis. 2016. Kin signs in Australian Indigenous sign languages. CoEDL Fest. ARC Centre of Excellence for the dynamics of language, Melbourne University, Australia, 2. Februar
Bauer, Anastasia. 2014. The Use of Signing Space in a Shared Sign Language of Australia. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Adone, Dany, Bauer, Anastasia, Cumberbatch, Keren & Elaine Maypilama. 2012. Colour signs in two Indigenous sign languages. In: Zeshan, U. & C. De Vos (Eds.) Endangered sign languages in village communities: anthropological and linguistic insights Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 53-86.